The new Doctor with his ruffled brown hair and sideburns dashed around the console, flicking switches as he went before he stopped at the monitor.
"6 PM...Tuesday..." he muttered under his breath.
Kayla blinked. She knew about Time Lords, the Time Agency's file was very good, which was why she had heard about regeneration, but like most things in the file, it wasn't proven. But she had just watched the Doctor change from being all northern and warlike to a man with brown hair, sideburns, and a very British accent. Glancing on a whim, Kayla saw that Rose was half hidden behind a pillar, shocked.
"October... 5006...on the way to Barcelona!" the Doctor straightened up and faced Kayla and Rose, his eyes mainly on the former. "Now then...what do I look like?" Before either could answer, the Doctor spoke again. "No, no no, no no no no no no no. No. Don't tell me." He spoke rapidly, causing Kayla to blink.
"Let's see...two legs, two arms, two hands..." the Doctor tested his wrists, circling them. "Slight weakness in the dorsal tubercle." Suddenly, his hands flew up to his head, feeling the hair that sat there. "HAIR! I'm not bald!" He smiled brightly at Kayla, who was smiling just as brightly back. Shocked, but still enjoying the Doctor's new found joy.
"Oh-Oh! Big hair!" the Doctor continued, his hands going to his sideburns, rubbing up and down them. "Sideburns-I've got sideburns! Or really bad skin. Little bit thinner..." He slapped his stomach noisily. "That's weird. Give me time, I'll get used to it." He paused, his eyes widening and he blinked rapidly several times. Sounding like someone who had found out something amazing, the Doctor stated, "I...have got...a mole. I can feel it."
Kayla glanced behind her at the sound of heavy breathing to see Rose's expression, which showed her fear quite plainly. Turning back to the Doctor, she tried to get his attention, but he was too caught up with his…mole.
"Between my shoulder blades, there's a mole." He rotated his shoulders. "That's all right. Love the mole." The Doctor looked straight at Kayla, grinning widely and madly at her. "Go on then, tell me." He straightened himself out again, ready to be judged by Kayla. His brown hair was very ruffled, standing up in all different directions like a porcupine. "What do you think?"
"Perfect." Kayla answered softly.
Rose blinked before she started to speak. "Who are you?"
"I'm the Doctor." The Doctor answered, slightly crestfallen by Rose's question. He had tried to prepare her, Kayla had tried, but now his first companion after the war didn't understand. It hurt even more when she shook his head, not believing him.
"No...where is he? Where's the Doctor?" Rose's voice rose as she spoke. "What have you done to him?"
"You saw him change," she glanced over at the spot where the Doctor had regenerated, "and now he's different.
"I saw him sort of explode, and then he replaced him, like a...a teleport or a transmat or a body swap or something." Rose argued. Very slowly, the blond walked to the Doctor, making him armslength before she pushed him in the chest, making him rock backwards in shock.
"Rose, I promise you-" Kayla tried, but the blond cut her off.
"You're not fooling me." She hissed to the Doctor. "I've seen all sorts of things. Nanogenes...Gelth..." Rose gave him an extra dark look. "Slitheen..." The Doctor's eyebrow rose at the last one. The Slitheen weren't that scary, and to the universe, they were a joke.
"Oh, my God, are you a Slitheen?" Rose gasped, seeing the eyebrow move.
"I'm not a Slitheen." The Doctor disagreed.
Rose glared at the Doctor, not believing him while Kayla winced softly. "Send him back. I'm warning you, send the Doctor back right now!" She yelled.
"Rose, it's him." Kayla stepped in front of the blond, staring her deep in the eye as she spoke.
"It can't be him." Rose tried weakly.
"I was dying. To save my own life I changed my body. Every single cell, but...it's still me." The Doctor explained from behind, coming to stand next to Kayla.
"You can't be." Rose whispered speaking only to the Doctor.
"Then how could I remember this? Very first word I ever said to you. Trapped in that cellar. Surrounded by shop window dummies...oh..." The Doctor glanced around, remembering for a moment before he gaze landed on Kayla, and all thought except her was wiped from his mine, making the new Doctor loose his train of thought even more. "I took your hand..." the Doctor continued, his thoughts still slightly jumbled, "I said one word...just one word, I said...'run.'" The Doctor gazed at Rose for a few moments before glancing out of the corner of his eye at Kayla, who was smiling softly at the Doctor.
"Doctor." Rose's voice cut into his thoughts, making the Doctor smile.
"Hello." He greeted.
Rose sighed, stumbling backwards as the weight of it all crashed down on her. Kayla glanced over at her, worried, but the blond, who was being oddly civil, waved the gaze off. So Kayla shrugged and turned to go help the Doctor with the TARDIS.
"And we never stopped, did we? All across the universe. Running, running, running..." the Doctor flicked a few switches on the console as he went. Kayla rolled her eyes and sat in the chairs by the console, watching. "One time we had to hop. Do you remember? Hopping for our lives." Kayla laughed softly at the memory, and at the Doctor hopping madly up and down on spot, doing a mini reenactment. Rose pressed her back against the pillar and watched the Doctor. "Yeah? All that hopping? Remember hopping for your life? Yeah?! Hop? With the..." The wild enthusiasm in the new Doctor ebbed away at Rose's lack of reaction. Some of the hope that he had regained from Rose realizing who he was vanished.
It wasn't that he loved Rose, his hearts belonged to Kayla, but he liked Rose, liked her like a sister, and he wanted Rose to accept him as the Doctor because he thought of them as friends. Kayla had understood, but Rose had had trouble, she hadn't be able to process what was going on. He hated doing that to his companions, but there was never time to explain it to the others what was going on, he either didn't have the strength or the thought process to tell them, usually both.
"Rose?" Kayla asked, pulling the Doctor from his thoughts.
"Can you change back?" the blond asked the Doctor.
"Do you want me to?" the Doctor asked, not wanting to hear the answer.
"Yeah." Kayla winced along with the Doctor.
"Oh." The Doctor muttered. Kayla got up and gave him a hug, comforting him for a short amount of time. Blushing the Doctor blinked and then wrapped his arms around her, and then she broke away, going back to her seat with a large blush on her face that was mirrored by the Doctor.
Rose blinked for a few seconds before she tilted her head at the Doctor, still wanting the old one, the proper him, to be back. "Can you?" She pressed, voicing her thoughts.
"No." the Doctor glanced down at the floor, disappointed. Just when he had convinced Rose who he was, she wanted him to change. "Do you want to leave?" He asked softly, the thought upsetting him.
"Do you want me to leave?" Rose asked, shocked by the mere thought of leaving the TARDIS. She could work with Kayla because there was no way in hell that she would ever leave the TARDIS forever.
"No! But…your choice...if you want to go home..." the Doctor explained, fumbling over the words as he slid over to the console, Kayla getting up to help him fly the TARDIS. "Cancel Barcelona. Change to...London...the Powell Estate...ah...let's say the 24th of December." The Doctor glanced at Kayla and then Rose. "Consider it a Christmas present." Rose edged slightly closer to the console. "There."
The Doctor stepped back, his arms defensively tucked to his arm pits while Rose looked at the console, feeling the TARDIS shudder as it changed direction.
"I'm going home?" Rose asked softly.
"Up to you. Back to your mum...it's all waiting. Fish and chips, sausage and mash, beans on toast-no, Christmas! Turkey! Although...having met your mother...nut loaf would be more appropriate." The Doctor joked, making Rose look down quickly to a hide a small smile. "Was that a smile?" the Doctor wondered softly.
"No." Rose answered, making Kayla and the Doctor grin.
"That was a smile, I saw one…" Kayla made her voice sound slightly creepy and all knowing.
"No it wasn't." Rose disagreed.
"You smiled..." the Doctor teased.
"No I didn't." Rose tried, knowing that her argument wouldn't hold.
"Oh, come on, all I did was change, I didn't—" The Doctor gagged as the TARDIS shuddered, making Kayla's brow furrow as she took a step forwards. Rose looked at the Doctor questionably.
"What?" Rose asked, hoping that there hadn't been a gag.
"I said I didn't—" the Doctor gagged more violently. Kayla walked closer to him.
"Doctor?" she asked softly, growing worried.
"Uh oh." The Doctor muttered, giving no answer to Kayla's call.
"Er...are you alright?" Rose wondered, edging around the console towards the Doctor. Instead of receiving an answer, a piece of the Vortex issued from the Doctor's mouth.
"Oh…there's something wrong with the change." Kayla muttered. The Doctor attempted a nod but only gagged again, this time falling to his knees, his face contorting in pain. Kayla stopped her slow walking and knelt down beside him, wrapping her arm around his shoulders in support.
"Look...maybe we should go back. Let's go and find Captain Jack, he'd know what to do." Rose suggested, not seeing Kayla wince at her father's name. The Doctor had told her that he had decided to leave…that Jack had other duties to attend to and had put his trust in the Doctor.
"Gah, he's busy! He's got plenty to do rebuilding the Earth!" the Doctor dismissed while Kayla narrowed her eyes at the new information which she filed away for later questioning.
The Doctor saw a lever on the console and a wild gleam appeared in his eyes. "I haven't used this one in years." He told them excitedly as he flicked it.
"Doctor!" Kayla cried out in warning as the TARDIS shuddered violently, almost sending the three to their feet.
"What're you doing?!" Rose yelled to him.
The Doctor's wild gleam went with his crazy tune that he spoke in, "Putting on a bit of speed! That's it!" He started to turn more knobs while Kayla ran to the console and started to try and fix the issues he was causing. Rose gripped the TARDIS console harder, terrified. "My beautiful ship! Come on, faster! That's a girl!" Rose flinched at the mental tone while Kayla kept a string of curses running under her breath.
"I can't fix it!" She yelled to Rose, also gripping the console.
"Faster! Wanna to break the time limit?!" the Doctor yelled to the girls, oblivious to their conversation.
"Stop it!" Kayla ordered him harshly, her voice marred by her heavy breathing.
"Ah, don't be so dull-let's have a bit of fun! Let's rip through that vortex!" the Doctor caught her eye for a moment before he spoke again, this time much calmer, "The regeneration's going wrong. I can't stop myself." He grimaced in pain, "Ah, my head..."
Violently, he sprung up into a standing position and once again, his voice had gone back to being crazed. "Faster! Let's open those engines!" A loud bell started to ring loudly.
"What's that?" Rose asked worriedly, glancing around.
"It means that the Doctor has made us crash." Kayla reported.
"We're gonna crash land!" the Doctor agreed, laughing manically.
"Well then, do something!" Rose yelled.
"I can't, it's out of control!" Kayla yelled back, getting over ridden by the crazed Doctor.
The crazed Time Lord started to run around the console, giggling like a school girl. "Oh, I love it! Hot dawg!" He hopped in the air excitedly.
"You're gonna kill us!" Rose protested.
"Doctor, what the hell have you done?" Kayla cried out.
"Hold on tight, here we go!" the Doctor grabbed Kayla in a tight embrace, pressing her down to the floor, automatically protecting her. "Christmas Eve...!" He cried out, kneeling down next to Kayla, his arms still wrapped around her.
"Doctor!" Kayla screamed…
Kayla Hark will be continued in: Dancing with the Doctor
OH MY GOD, I AM SO EXCITED...Sorry, right.
So, I am SOOOOO excited for the next book! The title is awesome, in my opinion, and...well...so much fluff in the next chapter.
I also want to say: Thank you to all the people who have read/reviewed/favorited/and followed this book. The sequel will be up in a week and I put out a notification chapter. Oh, and here's a little spoiler for you...what is Kayla doing a lot in the next two chapters?
Oh, and I forgot, New Earth will be a lot shorter due to Kayla not being with them. Sorry if you enjoy that episode, but I really hate it, so minisode length!
Now, review answering time!
beulah2013: He made the message that was in the episode to Rose as well, but hers was shorter. As for the Doctor asking about Lucy...I have plans for that, mostly with the third/fourth book.
fandomenforcer: I miss nine too, but in all honesty, Ten and Kayla are a lot better for each other, and their relationship is so fluffy!
haleyrayxx: Thanks! I'm going with series three so far, probably when Jack comes back.